
#8-SP Jameson Taillon
We’re heading back to the Pirates and taking a look at another arm in Jameson Taillon. Taillon, who’s parents are Canadian, was drafted second overall in the 2010 draft, in between Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. Obviously, Taillon hasn’t become the kind of player these two have, but he’s still been pretty effective. Over four seasons in the bigs, Taillon has gone 29-24 with a 3.67 ERA, a 1.247 WHIP, and a 112 ERA plus. Taillon is a power arm with a fastball in the mid ’90s and a hard slider in the upper 80’s, so he’ll bring some velo to a rotation that, outside of Nate Pearson, didn’t have a lot of it. Taillon will also help the Jays accomplish their goal of throwing more strikes, as he was in the 81st percentile in walks allowed in 2018, so he’s around the zone a lot, which again was something the Jays rotation struggled with last season. Taillon has missed most of the last two seasons though, as he underwent Tommy John surgery during the 2019 season, so there definitely is some risk in trading for him.
Pirates injury updates:
— Mike Persak (@MikeDPersak) September 9, 2020
Jameson Taillon threw 25 pitches today, and Mitch Keller threw 3 innings and 43 pitches in live BP sessions today at PNC Park.
Keone Kela has now thrown off the mound.
Yacksel Rios had a setback and is not throwing right now.
However, like Musgrove, he has two years of control left and Pittsburgh is trying to sell off big league talent so Taillon may be shipped out of town before next season. If Taillon can find his old form he could provide more upside than a guy like Musgrove and be an impact arm in the Jays rotation.
TOR receives SP Jameson Taillon; PIT Receives C Reese McGuire, SS Kevin Smith